About Me

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

It's Much More Than That - Success

Is it just me or does society seem to have certain standards for "success?" It's almost as if there are these unwritten "rules" that dictate what qualifies as success, and tips for how to become a successful person are thrown at us left and right. 

The word for today is success. According to the dictionary, 'success' means "the accomplishment of an aim or purpose."

It does not say "being rich and beautiful and famous." It does not say "graduating college with a 4.0 GPA and getting a job that makes a ton of money." In fact, the definition does not specify any certain aim or purpose at all. But the world seems to label people as successful only once they have reached a certain aim or goal that is deemed "acceptable" by society.

To me, success does not mean the same thing for everybody. To me, to be successful is to be content. For one person, success may be getting a good job and making a lot of money. For another person, success may be learning to read, or write, or be a good parent to their children, or make it through high school.

Do not compare someone else's success to your own. You are not in the same situation as anyone else, and you do not know their struggles. You may not realize that the person who barely made it through freshman English studied for hours every night trying to read or write a few sentences. You may not understand how someone working in the supermarket bagging groceries feels successful, but for them, that might be a huge accomplishment.

So yes, success is "the accomplishment of an aim or purpose," but what we need to remember is that the aims and/or purposes by which we measure success are not the same for everyone. Create your own goals, work hard to achieve them, and do whatever you can to try and be content in this life. After all, it is your life, and you deserve to be successful in whatever way that might be for you.

Do you consider yourself successful?

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